Automatons and Dog Paws
by Master Hexer
Summary: little Nox has always loved the Dwemer, how they could bring metal to life and make machines work forever. He just has to learn as much as he can before getting dragged away for dinner.
1. chapter 1

The padding of paws and the scrape of leather soled shoes echoed throughout the abandoned corridors. Pipes hissed and groaned in constant work, never stoping, never resting. The parts if automatons were strewn about the rooms I encountered in varying states.

Whirring and clanking came from up ahead, and Vigilance gave a warning growl, silenced by my comforting hand on his back. Slipping around the corner I could see it, a working Sphere. Unfolded and roaming around like it had a purpose, but unsure what that purpose was.

I reached over my shoulder to pull my crossbow off my back, loading a bolt into it from the adjacent quiver. Vigilance stood guard beside me as I observed it, recording its movements in my brain. I watched the gears turn, the joints bend, the steam hiss, and gyros spin. Once I had observed enough for later documenting, I raised my crossbow and fired, hitting the automaton in the lower back joints. The mechanics failed and the structure crumpled, bringing it to the ground with a crash.

Vigilance went over and sniffed it, making sure it was destroyed before letting me over to it. Such a loyal dog, looking out for me all the time. I wouldn't be able to do this without him.

I sheathed my crossbow and jogged over to my fallen prize, prying the mechanics open and salvaging everything useful. Gears, cogs, gyros and scrap metals, discarding the broken pieces from where my bolt pierced it.

Now all I needed was a centurion dynamo core and I could head back to camp. One of the monstrosities was sure to be in the next room, so I had to be quiet and careful. Vigilance went over and observed the room before I approached. There was my prize, a centurion automaton, standing proud and at attention, just like its creators made it. It was terrifyingly beautiful. It had to be three times my height, and weigh more than ten of me, and in the centre of its chest, the core, glowing red with whatever components it healed.

I ginned at it, itching to have that component in my hands, while my dog padded excitedly next to me in anticipation although he wouldn't move towards it until I told him to. These things were dangerous ad packed one hell of a punch. We had to be careful.

Scouting out the room, I picked our vantage points, signalling Vigilance to move where I wanted him to. I moved into position too, careful that my movement and sounds wouldn't wake the machine until we were ready. Once in place I aimed and shot. The heavy bolt hardly dinted the metal, but it woke it up.

Its loud hissing steam erupted out of exhausts as it came to life, stumbling towards me with its massive feet. Vigilance jumped out and rammed it with his front paws, drawing its attention away from me while i reloaded. The war dog danced around it while I pulled on the heavy string and loaded another projectile, keeping out of the way of its hammered fists.

Once I was ready, I rose and shot it, hitting it in the neck and breaking the cogs. It turned and lumbered towards me while Vigilance hid momentarily to get his strength back, and I again reloaded. The broken head making it walk off centre and lop sided gained me precious seconds to aim and fire once more, tearing pieces f it apart and breaking it even more.

Now I ran to the other side of the room and hid while the dog tore into it again, driving its attention away from me. Steam was billowing out in measures, scalding my loyal beast while I set the crossbow up once more. My next bolt hit it in the hip joint and brought it down completely, never to rise again.

Victorious, I ran over to Vigilance to check him over. A few bumps and bruises and a cut or two and a bit of steam damage to his fur, but he was smiling up and me and jumping to lick my face. I laughed and cast a healing spell just to make sure he was alright, then walked over to claim the spoils.

Lifting the machine to get at the core was harder than bringing it down. Using my skills as an engineer I managed to jack it up high enough for me to slide under to pry it out. Finally, I had my prize, the glowing heart of a dwarvern centurion, the last thing I needed for my project.

"Alright boy, great work today. Now how about we get home before mama yells at us again."


	2. chapter 2

"Nox Owen! Where in the name of the Eight Devine's have you been?!" my mother yelled.

Vigilance cringed away beside me. "Do you have any idea how worried I have been these past two days? You told me you were with Adara, but when I saw her in the market, she said she hadn't seen you for over a week."

I looked at the ground in shame, toing the ground with my boot and hiding my hulking knapsack behind me. "I'm really sorry mama. I just wanted to do a bit of exploring, that's all. Calcelmo wants me to help out with searching other ruins in the Reach and I wanted to have a look at things for myself."

Mama sighed and rubbed her forehead like she had a headache. "You know I fully support your education, but I worry for your safety as well. Forsworn are everywhere in these hills, and with only Vigilance to look after you, how can I be sure you will come home after every expedition?"

Said dog gave a sneeze that sounded suspiciously like a snort. I couldn't help but smirk slightly at that. Smart dog knew what people were saying around him. I loved him very much, and this little feature of him made me love him even more.

"He's a war hound, that's why papa got him for me, so I could be safe when I go out of the city. You know Banning, he trains a good dog. Vigilance has never allowed anything to hurt me. "

Mama sighed again and dropped to her knees, placing her hands on my shoulders. "I still worry for you my boy. Your father and I would be so upset if you got hurt or didn't come home. And Calcelmo wouldn't know what to do with himself if his assistant never turned up again. I'm not saying you can't ever go into another ruin, what I want is for you to be honest with me and tell me where you are going, and when you will get back, so I know where to send the guards if you don't come back to me. I just want you to be more open and careful ok?"

I nodded once more and told mama I would let her know next time I decided to go out. It seemed to appease her, but not completely. Her face shifted into something of an evil smirk.

"Don't think that you are completely out of trouble though. You are doing extra homework for a week, do you hear me? Now, go and find that old wizard and get him to give you your next lessons to work on, and dump that bag of metal with him so you don't get distracted. Go, now."

Vigilance and I ran out of there and towards the excavation site where Calcelmo worked, boasting about our latest haul with the old elf looking on excitedly. As instructed, I left my bag of goodies with him to look over while I grabbed the next book on the Dwarves he was using to teach me. He was almost finished his own book on the Dwemer and promised to give me the first copy once it was printed, but until then, I was to read and study the book _The Aetherium Wars_.

For the next week, I studied the book and mapped out the locations mentioned, going through notes and research of the cities and possible locations of the legendary Aetherium Forge. A quest I would one day embark on. That is, if mama and papa let me. I doubt they would want me traversing the land of Skyrim on my own, even with Vigilance by my side.

Too soon, I finished the notes and research and had nothing to do, nothing to forge with Ghorza, no new section of Nchuand-Zel to explore with Calcelmo, and Adara was too busy with her parents to hang out with. The Khajiit caravans weren't even here yet. Instead, I went over all my journals and notes for future projects now that I had the time.

I had a few things I planned to make with my spoils from the many ruins I have delved into. Perhaps I could start making those goggles I designed, since now I had all the pieces I need, or I could maybe start on that dwarvern armour for Vigilance. Either way, I now had something to do.

Rushing out of Vlindrel Hall and into Understone Keep, I made my way swiftly to Calcelmo's workspace with Vigilance padding behind me, and grabbed my bag of goodies so I could set to work. The goggles first, then the armour, I thought.

Finally, I finished my project, and had a working pair of dwarvern goggles. As a matter of fact, I was quite proud of my creation and wanted to test them out immediately in the closest unexplored dwarvern ruin. Mother was impressed by my work and allowed me to go as long as Calcelmo picked the location. I was too happy to care where he picked, I just wanted to use my newest creation as soon as possible.

Calcelmo found some notes in a book of an unmarked location on the world map that I could check out. Easy to find, a possible Dwemer convector at the site, right next to a river near Druadach. When I told mama of where I was going and when I would be back, she let me go out to explore and test the goggles. With Vigilance by my side, we ran down the road outside of the city and headed out.

I couldn't help but laugh in glee at what the goggles were already doing. I could see the outlines of animals in a glowing aura with the Detect Life function, and see humans far ahead and know which ones to avoid with the Threat Assess function. I was ecstatic at my creation, and raced the war hound to the ruin.

Laughing and playing around against the river bank, I stumbled upon a small bag with a few little mudcrabs skulking around. The bag had a number of Dwemer Gyros in it, which didn't make much sense until I heard a woman up ahead cursing about thieving mudcrabs. I raised my goggles after assessing her as not a threat and approached, bag in hand.

"Excuse me, is this your bag?" I asked. The woman turned, surprised at my appearance. "Oh you found them! Thank you so much. It was those damn mudcrabs wasn't it? Sneaky little things."

Vigilance gave a bark next to me, his way of saying hi. The woman dropped to her knees with a huge smile and started cooing at him and patting him all over to the dogs delight. "He's lovely! What's this handsome fella's name?" she asked.

"This is Vigilance, my war-hound." The woman continued to laugh and pat him, even shaking his paw in greeting. "A pleasure Vigilance. And what about you young man, what's your name?"

"My names Nox. Nox Owen."

"Nice to meet you Nox. I'm Sorine Jurard." She replied, shaking my hand.


	3. chapter 3

"Um, excuse me! Excuse me! Are you Sorine Jurard?" someone yelled. I raised my head from the notebook I was reading, and Sorine lifted my goggles off of her eyes to stare at the newcomer.

Not too far from us was an Imperial male dressed in armor with an axe at his hip. While he did look dangerous, he wasn't hostile to us as we sat on the ruined stone, and approached calmly. Vigilance stood in front of me just as he was trained, wary of the stranger.

"Who's asking?" called out Sorine.

"My name is Rowan. A man named Isran sent me to find you." He called out as he approached.

"What does Isran want with me? Last time I saw him he assured me he didn't need my help with anything."

"We've got a bit of a situation…"

The rest of the conversation droned away in the background as I went back to the notebook in my hands. My new friend had collected quite a few schematics and diagrams from all over, detailing the construction of dwarvern creations. There were notes on the dwarvern metal and its properties that I hadn't even considered, drawings on known weapons and automatons, and even some of the lesser known artefacts left from the mysterious Dwemer. I would love to try and recreate some of these based off of the drawings, but I wouldn't plagiarise Sorine's hard work. I wondered if she and I could work together.

"Alright, you've convinced me. Ill head over there as soon as possible."

That got my attention. Sorine and Rowan had apparently finished their business and were parting ways. Unfortunately, it looked like Sorine would be leaving.

"Sorry kid, Ive got to head out to the Rift. Somethings come up that I cant ignore." She said and she handed back my goggles.

"Secret stuff I'm guessing." I asked her.

"Something like that, but I think ill have an opportunity to start creating some of this stuff." She said with a smile as I handed back her notebook.

Vigilance whined at the thought of her leaving so soon, I didn't blame him. She was a really nice person.

"How about you come back to Markarth with me before you head off. You can get some more supplies and catch a ride on the carriage to Riften. It would be better than walking all the way there on your own."

My new friend smiled and grabbed her knapsack from the ground. "Sure thing, sounds like a good idea. Lead the way."

With that, she said farewell to Rowan and we were off. On our way back to the Reach capitol we spoke more about Dwemer designs and creations and how to recreate them. By the time we got back, Sorine and I had worked together on a way to improve my crossbow and track down more dwarvern hauls taken by bandits.

Once we made it to Markarth she didn't stay long, just long enough to get some more supplies and book a trip to Riften, I waved to her as the carriage pulled away down the road.

"Ill send a courier your way once I'm settled in! I might have need for an assistant in the future! Good luck Nox!" she yelled.

Vigilance gave a loud howl and stood on his hind legs and waved goodbye to her, and the last I heard of her was a hearty laugh before she turned a corner and was out of sight.


End file.
